Upcoming Workshop:

Give tangible physical form to your photographs and create the only lasting form of your work, fine-art prints, as beautiful hand-made renderings.

This workshop focuses exclusively on improving your fine-art digital printing in our fully-equipped Digital Lab, primarily using Epson inkjet printers. Concentration will be on inkjet printing with color pigments and black/gray ink combinations on coated and rag papers. Learn from the digital pioneer how he obtains his impressive results during four days of lectures, printing, and feedback in the studio.

May 4, 2019 – May 7, 2019

Welcome to the September 2018 Edition of the Stephen Johnson Photography Newsletter.

The opening of Life Form last month, promo visits, some marketing and print fulfillment, have made for some very full days. The loss of my beautiful dog Sandy has been a real and deep challenge. Remembering our wonderful friendship is life-giving. The photographs help.— Steve

This month's View From Here column features recent happenings, photographs and new workshops. We hope you find the column interesting and will consider sending us some comments.

We're offering a 9.5x14 inch print of the photograph, matted to 20 inch wide board and ready to frame for $195, framed in silver for an additional $100, wood for $250. This print at this price is offered through August 31. We'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by October 15.

LATEST NEWS:

Life Form Exhibition on display at Stephen Johnson Photography.

2018 Workshop Schedule is building into 2019 with these and other great courses coming up. See what a great experience students have had on Steve's Workshops by exploring Workshop Testimonials.

Upcoming Events & Workshops

Feedback on our work has proven critical to many of us involved in the arts. In this emerging age of digital photography, it is hard to find people knowledgeable in the technology and with a background and experience in the fine arts.

This workshop is part of a series of classes concentrating on the tools within Photoshop critical to Photographers. It is a great chance to explore digital photographic editing with Steve in his custom-built lab. Hands-on help and demonstrations of his use of editing tools, executed with restraint and finesse, will benefit all of your digital photography work. This class is designed to break down the steps to really understand the processes, and to work through difficult images.

Join us for a one-day in-depth exploration of Color Management theory and practice designed to get you comfortable with the concepts and architecture of color management and build practical experience methods for using profiles for monitor display and in printing. Monitor calibration and print profiles will be explained and you will have hands-on experience making both.

Give tangible physical form to your photographs and create the only lasting form of your work, fine-art prints, as beautiful hand-made renderings.

This workshop focuses exclusively on improving your fine-art digital printing in our fully-equipped Digital Lab, primarily using Epson inkjet printers. Concentration will be on inkjet printing with color pigments and black/gray ink combinations on coated and rag papers. Learn from the digital pioneer how he obtains his impressive results during four days of lectures, printing, and feedback in the studio.

Marin Photography Club would like to invite you to be a presenter at their Education Night, Monday, May 13, 2019.

Steve will discuss his exhibition of new prints from over 50 years of Space Photography is joining the current Life Form Exhibition for a mind-blowing journey from the living world close-up to the depths of space. The Space Exhibit evolved out of Steve’s longterm interest in the space program and views offered of the heavens and by spacecraft far away. The concentration on the exotic form of the living world of the Life Form work inspired this expressive look at the wonders of the very large and distant in this print exploration of photographs Steve had been gathering for years.

A two-day digital photography workshop exploring San Francisco Bay Area Lighthouses and the vistas surrounding them. We'll spend time at Pigeon Point on the San Mateo coast, the Montara Lighthouse and Hostel, Fort Point with its spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Point Bonita Lighthouse on the Marin Headlands.

This full-week photography workshop is an intense immersion into digital photography with one of its pioneers. In five days you will go from perhaps not even understanding what a RAW file is, to making well-crafted and thoughtful prints.

Since 1979 I have led winter photography workshops to Death Valley. I keep returning to this desert because there is a magic here, a quiet and vast expanse of sensual and strange earthworks, remarkable in color, resting under the soft winter light of January.

We will spend our first half day preparing for our outings. Topics covered will be optimal digital camera use in a variety of formats, file size and printing considerations. We will open files, review success, constantly going back in the field putting into practice lessons learned.

Jan 18, 2020 – Jan 21, 2020

Custom Workshop Scheduling: We have set up polls for recently requested workshops to see who might be interested and able to make some dates:

With all of our busy schedules and limited budgets, destination workshops or classes become a challenge, but many of you still have questions you need answered, or feedback on some new work. We want to remind you of our Virtual Online Consulting Program. This service allows all of you out there around the globe to consult online live with Steve on technical, aesthetic and workflow issues using Skype and your webcam.

We hope you can come by the gallery and see the original prints in the new Life Form Gallery, and the Exquisite Earth exhibition with its accompanying very special Exquisite Earth Portfolio 1. We invite you to join us on a workshop, rent lab space, or just say hello and let us know what you are up to photographically and what you might like to see us offer. We value your input.

NEW PHOTOGRAPH

THE VIEW FROM HERE
by Stephen Johnson

Knocking Around in August

With the Life Form Exhibition opening follow-up and needing to keep regular gallery hours, I've had to stay close to home this month. It is also true that my beautiful 14 year old Golden Retriever Sandy seemed on her last days and I needed to stay very close to her.

Living next to the Pacific Ocean always provides opportunity to connect with nature. With the occasional whale visits the photographic possibilities keep pulling me in.

Rocks. Pebble Beach. 2018.Canon EOS 5DSr

Lunging Humpback Whales. Pacifica, CA. 2018. Canon EOS 5DSr..

The whales have not been as numerous this year, but we have spent hours watching in fascination with their movement and amazement at their presence. At one point a few weeks ago, three Humpback Whales were lunge feeding at sunset. Sometimes a too slow shutter makes for magic. What a great coastline.

A Great Blue Heron was hanging out in the Pacifica Center for the Arts fields hunting gophers. I love it when they take off or land, with wings spread out in reaching grace. But this one was happy to be watching carefully. I was unwilling to approach the Heron too close and cause this beautiful bird to fly, so I was also cointent just to watch for a little while and enjoy its feathered wonder.

Evening Cloud Shadows. Pacifica, CA. 2018.Canon EOS 5DSr.

Almost any tree-lined trail seems worth taking. The road into Murray Ranch in Half Moon Bay, now a state park, has been one of those wander roads. It is not dramatic, perhaps not even spectacular, but it does take me on another little journey through this planet. It is certainly quintessential California mid-coast.

We had a good weekend in the studio and on the road in the Highway One Coastal Journey Workshop. Extra time was spent in the studio customizing the class to the student's needs on depth of field, exposure, histograms and composition.

Exploring the meeting of land and sea is often a wonder. Our coastal stops on this workshop were filled with form, texture, salt air and varying light.

On the coastal workshop, I conducted a number of demonstrations on depth of field, abstraction and black and white renditions. One demo included previewing black and white renditions by changing the Canon Picture Style Menu to Monochrome. I pointed out, that as I was photographing in Raw, a color image would supplant the BW thumbnail when later viewed in a Raw Processor such as Camera Raw or Lightroom. Canon Digital Photo Professional would preserve the BW preview. A workaround to preserve the BW view I experienced in the field, was to change the camera settings from Raw alone, to Raw plus JPEG. This allowed me to hold onto the BW rendering I experienced in the field regardless of the Raw interpreter. My process is to then convert the file to BW in Photoshop with the Black and White Adjustment Layer.

California Academy of Sciences

A day wandering the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, birthed a few images as well as a great experience. The visit was to celebrate a birthday, but I did manage a few photographs to share.

At Stephen Johnson Photography

Current Exhibition

Life Form Opened in the Main Gallery at Stephen Johnson Photography on July 21. We have had many visitors come by the gallery since the opening. Many have then joined workshops and helped build community. Please come see the show. Pass the word.

Seeking Good Venues for Life Form

We are seeking good venues to show this work. The Life Form Series is now available for museum and gallery exhibition after December 2018.

Many of you likely subscribed to this newsletter list to learn about photography. Let this serve as a reminder that many of the past tutorials and essays are online.

There is also a Vimeo Video Tutorials Album available to see if thy might be of help. Let me know if there are other subjects your would like to see me address.

Video Archives Online

Over the years, I've built a large library of video connected with my work. Making that video available is an ongoing process. In the last few weeks I've taken advantage of Vimeo's Album Feature and organized the videos. Check out the page.

Sandy on one of our walks on the cliffs and flower fields along the Pacific Ocean.

My Golden Retriever Friend Sandy

On a personal note, my dear friend and near constant companion Sandy, passed away peacefully last night, August 28th.

Sandy will forever be in my heart with her enthusiasm, her gentleness, her goodness and her love. I was blessed to have this beautiful soul in my life for 14 and a half years. I miss her greatly.

Next Studio Workshop

Next Field Workshop

Free and For Sale

Free Stuff (a few items still left)

Last summer we replaced the Epson 2400s in our lab with their new P600s and consequently have some printers to seed to photographers in need. We were also given some Epson Canvas to share. These are available for pick-up to those of you on my mailing list. Let me know of your interest. I do want to spread them out among a few people.

We've had a few takers, but more are left. Take Advantage.

Epson Canvas Rolls 17 inch

1 Epson 2400 printer left

Equipment for Sale

The EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM is a lightweight, compact L Series telephoto zoom lens with Image Stabilizer. The optical Image Stabilization in the EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM lens provides up to an incredible four stops of shake correction-a first for Canon IS lenses. The use of fluorite UD lens elements provides excellent optical performance in terms of resolution and contrast. These features, together with its water-and dust-proof construction, provide both the performance and portability to meet user demands.

EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM. $600. I am selling this pristine 1 year old lens as I have replaced it with the new version II.

Featured Products

New Life Form Folio

The Life Form Folio

As we are premiering the Life Form Exhibition, I wanted to have a collectible item and record of the show prior to the full book I plan. So, now available is the 36 page 11x17 wire bound book, 5 years of work from 2013 to 2018 exploring these magnificent lives.

New Exquisite Earth Exhibition Catalog

Page 41

page 13

The Exquisite Earth Exhibition Catalog

As I've been on a roll on fixing bodies of work into POD books, I decided before the Exquisite Earth show could come down for new upcoming show, I wanted to create a printed record. So, now available is the 56 page 11x17 wire bound book, 5 years of work from 2005 to 2010 traveling this wondrous planet.

National Park Note cards

From "With a New Eye" Beautiful 300 line screen offset reproductions with envelopes in clear box. A great gift.

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